Posting about my upcoming book I’ve kept many important parts close to the chest. I’m pleased today, then, to announce the title:

The Complexity Paradigm: Using Systems Science to Drive Business Success.

I’m also thrilled to share its cover. And, while copies won’t be available until January 2027, pre-orders can be placed at the website of Columbia Business School Publishing as well as on Amazon.com. Here’s the official description of the book:

Business today remains tethered to a paradigm that is long out of date. This mindset assumes that universal answers exist: businesses can simply apply compartmentalized operations and follow linear paths to success. Experienced managers know business doesn’t work this way. Where should they turn?

In this groundbreaking book, Doug Garnett shows how complexity science reveals a new understanding of how business works that is as useful on the front lines as in the C-suite. This discipline―the study of behaviors in highly interconnected, adapting systems dominated by emergence―is revolutionizing fields from biology and economics to psychology and artificial intelligence. Recognizing a business as a complex adaptive system operating within other complex systems changes our perspective on everything from core concepts of demand, profit, and strategy to the nature of business success. Managers who grasp the order hidden within complexity discover not only a powerful new understanding of their role but also potential for dramatic contributions to success.

The Complexity Paradigm features vivid examples ranging from local coffee shops to major corporations like PepsiCo, Boeing, Mattel, Starbucks, and General Motors as well as tech giants such as Apple and AT&T. Grounding eye-opening theory in the realities of business, this foundational look at complexity offers deep insight and value for practitioners and students alike.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t note the book would make a great Christmas gift for the business geeks and nerds on your list as there are only 218 shopping days until Christmas!

Stay tuned to my blog to learn more about complexity, business, and this upcoming book.

For the moment, be well.

©2026 Doug Garnett — All Rights Reserved

My upcoming book, The Complexity Paradigm: Using System Science to Drive Business Success, will be available through Columbia Business School Publishing in January 2027 and can be pre-ordered today.

You can read more about my unusual background (math, aerospace, supercomputers, consumer goods & national TV ads) at www.Protonik.net. Through my company, Protonik LLC, I consult with companies as they design and bring to market new and innovative products while I have taught marketing, consumer behavior, and advertising at Portland State University since 2001. A member of the RetailWire.com Braintrust, I regularly engage discussions of retail challenges on topics of interest. Together with my podcast partner Shahin Khan, current issues in marketing and business are discussed on The Marketing (And Everything Else) Podcast — available on Google, Spotify, the OrionX website, and Apple Podcast.